The Lost
Reviewed by BRYAN SCHUESSLER
Jack Ketchum is fortunate to have written lots of books that seem to all be turning into movies. Is he the modern-day Stephen King? Maybe. He sure is getting films made left and right out of his work. Maybe as much as Clive Barker is.
Well, each and every author that I have mentioned I have great admiration for their work. Sometimes the film adaptations are not always on par with the original novel or story. That has not been the case with Jack Ketchum’s novels adapted to film. Maybe I am the wrong person to be writing this review. I have not read any of Jack Ketchum’s novels. I own a few of them, but have not gotten around to reading them. I think I am too busy watching movies, like The Lost (2005). I do know movies, though. I liked The Girl Next Door, another film adapted from a Jack Ketchum novel. It really creeped me out, though. It made me feel the same way Hard Candy made me feel. Sick and perverted. I had a bad aftertaste in my mouth and my palms were sweaty. I felt sorta ill. I guess that I am not big into kids and torture.
The Lost does have young adults in it. Teenagers are what the film is all about. That and one demented little guy named Ray Pye. His character made me want to smash his face in…actually his balls. I guess you can say that the actor Marc Senter did a wonderful job portraying this sick individual that was based on a true story. He really got me to hate him. The other performance I was enjoying was Robin Sydney (Wicked Lake, also directed by this very director) and Michael Bowen. I guess I have always enjoyed characters that Michael Bowen plays. He is really a good actor and is great at playing characters requiring small-town types of characters. Actually, now that I have researched his filmography, I have only seen him in Kill Bill Vol.1 . I do not think I have seen any other films of his. Maybe I remember him from some television shows. Regardless, the film was good. The film was also gory. It was both mentally disturbing and visually disturbing.
Characters are killed off quite gorily and you do not expect who is going to get killed. It was a low-budget film that had big-budget acting and writing. Director Sivertson did an excellent job with this film. I strongly recommend that you go out and rent this. It will be worth your while.
Simplifying Hard Candy as a movie about kids and torture is an outrage. Maybe you need to go back and watch it again!
Maybe you need to read what I write, Persona. Not anywhere in my review did i simplify Hard Candy to kids and torture. I did make the comparison that The Lost and Hard Candy left me with the same sick feeling. Maybe you need to read the review again because you obviously would not have said that had you read and understood it.
Well, I’m sure some enjoyed this film, but it dragged on for me. I do like how it portrayed the characters, but it just seemed to drag on way to much for my interest. I think it could have been better, but like you, I haven’t read the book, nor did I know it was based on a book, and now I’m pretty much going to look into reading it, to see what, or if anything was left out, and if that is why my interest wasn’t into it.